Toughness - Right Pinkie

Study the parts. His right pinkie, for example. He dislocated it during the 2007-08 season, trying to intercept a pass. Another avulsion fracture, this one also shredded a radial collateral ligament. Most players would have opted for surgery. Bryant played on. He not only appeared in all eighty-two regular-season games; he was named league MVP, the first time he ever won that honor. He also led the Lakers to the 2008 Finals, where they ran into a hungrier, more complete Boston team. "A buzz saw," Bryant says. The Lakers lost in six.

Immediately after the Finals, fans assumed Bryant would schedule the long- delayed finger surgery. Again, no. He wanted to be ready for the Beijing Olympics, a lifelong dream. For once he'd be surrounded by the world's best athletes.

Isn't he among the world's best athletes every night?

"This was different," he says. "These are the best of the best."

After helping the United States win gold, Bryant postponed surgery a third time. He didn't want to miss training camp. As the 2008-09 season got under way, the point was moot, the pinkie mended. Then, swiping at a ball in possession of LeBron James, Bryant dislocated yet another finger-his right ring finger this time. The pain was blinding, like nothing he'd ever experienced.

Over the following weeks, before each game, Vitti would stabilize Bryant's ring finger by bracing it to one of its neighbors. His hand reduced to a talon, Bryant was forced to develop a new shooting technique. He'd done this before, several times, including 1999, when he broke the fourth metacarpal. (He learned to shoot with a protective glove.) Now he did it again, only better, leading the Lakers back to the Finals. This time they won, besting Orlando in five.

Excerpt from GQ.com
By J.R. Moehringer
March 2010